A real estate agent gets slammed for insulting a waiter, another agent seeks to oust Los Angeles’ mayor, and a huge hole that needs to be filled. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of March 3-7.
Miss: Comeuppance for Nastiness. Stephanie Lovins, an agent with the Century 21 brokerage in Columbus, Ohio, received a harsh reminder of the old axiom “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Lovins was not pleased by the service she received from a waiter at a local Mexican restaurant and voiced her wrath on the receipt by leaving the message “Zero, You Suck” on the tip line and the slur “I hope Trump deports you!!!” at the signature line. Imagine her surprise when a photo of the receipt was posted online and Lovins was outed before a global Internet audience. And imagine her employer’s surprise that Lovins was suddenly famous for the wrong reason – the brokerage fired her.
Hit: Saying No to Incompetence. A Los Angeles real estate agent is leading a recall effort to force Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass out of office. Sahil Nandwani, an agent for JohnHart Real Estate, has launched a fundraising committee to fund the recall campaign, citing Bass’ shaky response to the Los Angeles County wildfires. Nandwani is a donor to the state Republican Party and he will need to obtain around 330,000 signatures, or 15% of Los Angeles registered voters, to get his effort on the ballot. Most likely, Nandwani will fall short in a heavily Democratic city, but at least someone is willing to step forward and rebuke the notion of business as usual after the destruction that occurred on Bass’ watch.
Hit: Full Speed Ahead. Congratulations to Jonathan McKernan and Bill Pulte for being approved yesterday by the Senate Banking Committee to become the next directors of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Housing Finance Agency, respectively. McKernan’s candidacy passed 13-11 along party lines while Pulte’s 15-9 vote gained support of Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks. And, once more, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the voice of shrill and ridiculous dissent, declaring McKernan was “clearly being sent in by co-presidents Trump and Elon Musk to unleash the scammers, the fraudsters and cheats on the American people.” Well, if anything, she’s predictable.
Hit: Work Deserving Honor. Gordon Hicks, CEO of the Markham, Ontario-based integrated facility management services firm BGIS, was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of his longstanding support and contributions to Kids Help Phone and Youth Mental Health advocacy across Canada. The Coronation Medal celebrates Canadians who have made a significant contribution to their nation or the wider world. Hicks’ family established the Cam’s Kids Foundation in memory of his son Cameron, who died in a traffic accident in 2014, and he has been a tireless supporter of bringing awareness to the mental health struggles of young Canadians. Bravo to Hicks on a well-deserved honor.
Miss: An XXL-Sized Hole. The proposed mixed-use Melrose Triangle development in West Hollywood, California, was approved in 2014. The project was going to encompass a six-story, 350,000-square-foot development with 80 apartment units plus office, retail and restaurant spaces. The only thing that was created from this project was the 270,000 cubic feet excavation for the planned parking garage. Multifamily Dive reports the entitlements on the project have now expired and no other development has been submitted as a replacement. Thus, the excavation needs to be filled in – a process that will require developer Charles Co. to bring in about 27,000 dump trucks worth of dirt to cover up the hole, a task that could take between six to nine months of labor to complete. Work to fill in this massive hold is expected to begin on March 17.
Hit: An XXL-Sized Deal. Kudos to BlackRock Inc., its new infrastructure arm Global Infrastructure Partners, and Geneva-based Terminal Investment on making history with the record-breaking $22.8 billion purchase of majority stakes in ports on both sides of the Panama Canal. The ports were acquired from the Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, which also sold the consortium 43 other ports in 23 countries. The consortium insisted their acquisition was not tied to President Trump’s repeated concerns about having Chinese interests controlling the Panama Canal, but let’s be honest – was anyone thinking about the Panama Canal before President Trump returned to the White House? And speaking of the president…
Miss: A Presidential Omission. Tuesday’s speech by President Trump before a Joint Session of Congress was not lacking in melodramatic pyrotechnics, but it was conspicuously absent of any mention to the challenges facing the housing market. The only housing-related comment by Trump was in this sentence: “By slashing all of the fraud, waste, and theft we can find, we will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors, and put more money in the pockets of Americans.” In fairness, Trump had previously stated that a healthier economy will lead to greater strength in the housing market – obviously, there were no new policies to report. Still, one wishes Trump could have devoted at least a few more sentences to acknowledging a still-sore point in the nation’s economic health.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Photo by JCPJR / Getty Images
